for example, when I commented that I was impressed people actually knew that they were Sikhs, and that that wouldn’t happen in Maine, well I wasn’t automatically insinuating that “hence the US sucks/is ignorant” etc, rather I was just pointing out that some states like Maine would benefit from a bit of worldly cultural exposure… not that they are bad or inherently racist, or any other such thing. Most people I have had discussions with about India/Hinduism/Hindi/Islam/Sikhism/cities and villages in India, etc have been genuinely interested in learning information about others in the world… they just haven’t been exposed to it at home/school/community as of yet.

Rob,

Your question wasn’t directed at me, but just to share….Polish friends here (NY) have told me that their Polish friends in Dublin have started heading home because work is drying up. In an interview with Pete Hamill recently, we got a bit off topic and in talking about Dublin he mentioned just being over there a little while ago and seeing many “To Let” signs in windows of the many former Georgian homes that had been converted to offices. From what I’ve heard from generally all friends and relatives is that the real estate situation is even more abysmal than ours here in the US.

Billy,

On the racism, in Dublin, I think it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Several years back, my mother and I hopped into a taxi and I passed some remark to the driver about we hadn’t been back in a year or two and how diverse Dublin had suddenly gotten (which is true, the country went from zero to sixty in terms of immigration practically overnight; when I was a kid there, aside from American tourists in the summer, the only other “foreigners” you saw were French, German, Spanish or Italian exchange students over to learn English. If you saw someone of African origin, you could safely bet he or she was a student at TCD, and there were pretty much no desis at all, except for maybe Cauvery Madhavan and her hubby. At the time of my taxi ride, you could easily spot West African women on O’Connell street with babies swaddled on their backs, and some Gypsies begging on or near O’Connell Bridge.). At that comment, the taxi driver (Irish guy in his mid-50s) launched into a tirade about all these foreigners and how they were getting all these great welfare benefits and housing and how it was all Mary Robinson’s fault (“That hoor!”) My Mom and I sat in the back seat, blinking at each other, aghast at the whole thing.

But on the other side of the coin, younger kids seem to be mixing it up quite well, to judge by the large number of mixed race couples you’d see around the city holding hands and kissing (but, yeah, I’m sure some of that may be done for parental shock value), and I was dumbfounded to hear a drivetime radio broadcast of Gerry Ryan last year or so, where the caller, another Dublin native about the same age as Ryan (to judge by the sound of him) who called in to rave about a wonderful vindaloo curry he had in Cavan over the weekend. Cavan!!???!!! What the???? At this point, after an extensive discussion about not just eating vindaloo curry, but also cooking it (!!), Gerry Ryan says “Well, one of my favorite Indian places is out by me in Clontarf (Dublin suburb).” The caller says “Oh, yeah, you mean _________, right?” To which Ryan says “No, not that place, the other one.”

I almost drove the car off the road. Tiny Clontarf has not one, but two Indian restaurants?! Dublin really has moved forward and become a European city.

Amardeep,

Looking forward to the next installment of the travelogue!

cheers, Maria

I would say the comment made by rob is more racist than that joke. I haven’t done any surveys but using the same personal experience stats as my man amardeep did, i find it shocking people think that way. Out of people in my family who either were born here or came here at a young age, most everyone has a degree or is currently in college. I’m trying to think of somone, a cousin, a niece, anybody, in my family who isn’t in school or already graduated from college and i’m drawing a blank.

If you get a chance come to the North!